‘RSS is destroying universities to deprive Dalits and backward communities of higher education’

Unleashing a bitter attack against Hindutva outfits of the right-wing ideology, progressive scholar and social activist R.K Hudgi has said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its frontal organisations are making all-out efforts to destroy educational institutions, especially centres of higher education such as universities, to ensure that none from Dalit and backward communities and minorities get higher education.

“There are around 800 universities in India. The RSS is suppressing scientific thought and inculcating superstitious and regressive ideology among students in all these institutions. For, it wants to deprive Dalits, backward communities and minorities of higher education. RSS ideologues know how Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who got higher education from India and abroad, not only questioned the exploitative and oppressive social order but also organised the marginalised communities to raise their voices against it. They are afraid of what will happen if all Dalits and backward communities get higher education and question the supremacy of a few elite and privileged classes over the vast majority of masses at the bottom of society,” he said.

Prof. Hudgi was addressing protesters at the Central University of Karnataka near Kadaganchi in Kalaburagi district on Wednesday condemning Vice-Chancellor of the university Battu Satyanarayan and faculty members Basavaraj Donur and Rohinaksha Shirlalu for what he said their efforts to communalise the university campus.

“You may have RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in your support to saffronise the university. But we have the Buddha, Basavanna and Ambedkar in our support to fight you back. You may have Manusmriti in your support to divide the people and establish the supremacy of a few over the vast majority. But we have the Constitution drafted by Dr. Ambedkar to unite the people and fight discrimination and oppression,” he said.

Scholar and activist Meenakshi Bali warned Prof. Satyanarayana against the spread of regressive and divisive communal ideology in Kalyana Karnataka which, she said, was known for peaceful coexistence of different communities with diverse cultural backgrounds.

“It is not Modi’s Gujarat nor is it Yogi’s Uttar Pradesh. It is the land of Basavanna. It is the land of the Sharanas and Sufi saints who fought discrimination and advocated the unity and equality of human beings. Your divisive ideology won’t work here. We won’t allow you to spread communal hate and turn this peaceful land into a conflict zone,” she said.